The MSc student disappeared from the university campus on October 15, 2016, soon after he was allegedly assaulted by members of the ABVP, the student wing of the BJP
NEW DELHI — Nearly nine years after Najeeb Ahmed, a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, went missing, a Delhi court on Monday accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) closure report in the case.
Najeeb, an MSc student, went missing from JNU on October 15, 2016 soon after he was allegedly assaulted by students affiliated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, the hostel warden had confirmed seeing him leave the campus in an auto-rickshaw.
Najeeb was 27 years old at the time of his disappearance. His mother, Fatima Nafees, filed a missing person complaint, and an FIR was registered in Delhi.
Najeeb’s mother later petitioned the court and the CBI took over the investigation from the Delhi Police in 2017. The CBI filed its closure report in 2018, after which Najeeb’s mother filed a protest petition opposing it.
In the order, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari of the Rouse Avenue Court noted that a “perturbing incident” had taken place before Najeeb went missing, but that it is “ipso facto not sufficient to arrive at the conclusion that the suspects had any role to play in causing the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed”.
However, the court said the case could be reopened if new evidence emerges, media reports said on Tuesday.
The CBI had concluded its investigation in 2018 after repeated efforts to trace Najeeb failed. It later submitted its closure report to the trial court, having received green light from the Delhi High Court.
Protest demonstration outside CBI headquarters in New Delhi on August 31 2018 seeking recovery of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed. — File photo
Through her lawyer, the distraught mother, Fatima Nafees, alleged that the CBI had bowed to political pressure and called the case politically motivated.
The court said it was “cognizant of the plight of an anxious mother”, but the CBI “cannot be faulted for the investigation carried out”. It noted that the investigation had been conducted in a “thorough and professional manner, from all possible angles”.
“The quest for truth is the foundation of every criminal investigation, yet there are cases where the investigation conducted cannot achieve its logical conclusion, despite the best efforts of the investigating machinery,” it said. The court said the CBI was “at liberty to re-open the present investigation” if it received “credible information” on Najeeb’s whereabouts, and that the agency should inform the court accordingly.
At the time of his disappearance, Najeeb was pursuing a master’s degree in biotechnology and staying at the Mahi-Mandvi hostel on the JNU campus.
During the hearings, the central agency informed the court that Najeeb had visited Safdarjung Hospital after the scuffle but had declined medical treatment. It also claimed that because no medical documents were prepared, it could not verify the statements of the doctor and medical staff at the time.
The investigating officer said Najeeb had been advised to get a medico-legal certificate (MLC) prepared, but instead returned to the hostel with his friend, Mohammad Kasim, and did not follow through.
What Happened in 2016?
According to Fatima Nafees, her son returned to JNU on 13 October 2016 after the semester break. On the night of 15 October, he called her and said something wrong had happened. In her complaint to the police, she said Najeeb’s roommate, Kasim, told her that Najeeb had been involved in a fight and was hurt.
Fatima travelled from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi the next day to meet her son. She said she spoke to him on the phone and asked him to wait at his hostel. But when she arrived there, Najeeb was not there. He has remained missing ever since.
SIO Expresses Anguish
Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) has expressed its deep anguish and strong condemnation over the Delhi court’s decision to accept the closure report filed by the CBI in the case of Najeeb Ahmad.
“This acceptance not only legitimises a failed and compromised investigation but also highlights the moral collapse of India’s premier investigative agency. By ending the probe without any answers, the CBI has chosen complicity over justice, silence over truth, and impunity over accountability,” SIO’s Telangana unit said in a statement on Tuesday.
